It’s more than waking up your spouse; it could also be hiding a deeper problem.
Most people living with snorers see themselves as victims of their partner. After all, they are the ones being kept awake every night due to their partners nuisance, while the one snoring sleeps peacefully, unaware of the frustrations they are causing.
But what we don’t see is that snoring is more of an annoyance; it can also be a symptom that the snorer has a serious health condition. It could also lead to the dangers like heart disease.
Obviously, there are a myriad of reasons why people would snore, and most of them aren’t chronic nor hazardous to your health. If you’re sleeping alone, it might be more dangerous for you since most of the time you aren’t even aware that you are “sawing logs” every night. To know whether you or your loved one are at risk for snoring-related health problems and what you can do about it, read on.
Why Do We Snore?
Snoring happens for a lot of reasons. That middle-of-the-night wheezing that you hear, paired together with snoring and snuffling heard throughout the night is caused by the obstruction of a person’s airways. Often than not, the muscles in the roof of the mouth or the back of the throat relaxes and becomes partially blocked, which obstructs the flow of air.
Michael Gradner, a PhD professor of psychiatry and a member of the Center for Sleep and Circadian Neurobiology at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine briefly explains a perfect description for snoring. “If you blow air through a floppy tube, it’s going to vibrate and make noise,” he explains, “And at night, for a lot of people, your airways become a floppy tube.”
Snoring can easily occur among people sleeping on their back rather than their sides, when they’ve had a few drinks before bed, or when nasal congestions due to allergies are present. As a matter of fact, half of all adults will snore at some time in their lives, at it’s usually not dangerous according to Gradner. “Most of the time, we can still get enough air to keep things functioning normally,” Gradner claims.
However there are other snoring triggers than can be harder to fix than most. For example, if you have an enlarged uvula, or your overweight, or you simply have a large tongue, this can increases your risk of having obstructive sleep apnea. In most cases, men who are overweight—since the weight they gain around their necks play an important factor—simply have a higher chance of snoring which can easily lead to sleep apnea. Sleep apnea is a serious condition where the heart cannot get enough oxygen to function properly.
Sleep Apnea Symptoms
Adults, roughly 5% and 15% of middle aged men to be exact, suffer from sleep apnea. Most of the times, they even go undiagnosed and untreated according to Gradner. For him, it’s bad news. According to recent studies, sleep apnea, high-blood pressure, heart attacks, and high-cholesterols are all strongly associated with sleep apnea. That, together with cardiovascular conditions, can be a serious sign of a medical condition that surely needs medical treatment.
For those with sleep apnea, obstruction of the airways can become so severe that breathing can slow down to a trickle. Dangerously enough, it could even stop for a few seconds at times. These so called episodes are “apneas,” at which point your brain sends signals to your body that signals it to force a gap, gag, or even a powerful snore.rnAccording to Gradner, “A lot of people think sleep apnea will cause them to suffocate, but it won’t.” “You’re still getting enough air to breathe—and if not, your brain will wake you up,” accordint to Gradner. The bigger the risk, the long-term damage that can be done, says Gradner.
Increasing oxygen levels throughout the night may cause oxidative damage and stress to the cells within our body. However, they also force our brain to maintain a high-alert at night to assure that it delivers a shot of adrenaline to our heart whenever sleep apnea occurs. This happens whenever our body and brain are ideally supposed to be recovering and having a peaceful rest.
According to Gradner, it is more of a cardiovascular problem rather a respiratory one. “People with untreated sleep apnea tend to develop these conditions years before they normally would,” as Gradner explains.
Treating snoring seriously
It all boils down to how you differentiate the ‘normal’ snoring to that of a more serious problem. If your sleeping partner oftentimes notices that you stop breathing for several seconds at a time, then that’s a sure sign that you may have a serious medical condition.rnThe volume of the snoring can also be used as a rule of the thumb whenever differentiating a normal snore from a more serious one. If you can easily hear someone snoring through a closed door, then that person is surely having trouble getting sufficient oxygen.
If you are, however, living alone and have nobody that can watch out for you, there is still hope. You can also observe if you are suffering from sleep apnea by simply observing your daytime sleepiness. If you can stop whatever it is you are doing at anytime and fall asleep immediately, it’s likely that you have a problem.
Another symptom to watch out for is waking up feeling exhausted—especially if the feeling doesn’t go away within 10-15 minutes after waking up. Also, those suffering from sleep apnea may have a trouble controlling their high-blood pressure, even under medication.
Treating sleep apnea
Fortunately, for those suffering from sleep apnea, it is very treatable and can be easily diagnosed even with just an overnight sleep study, which can either be done through a sleep clinic or your home, but there are also snorebore anti snoring devices .
However, lifestyle changes can easily eliminate your sleep apnea. Such changes include losing weight, sleeping in a different position, etc. for some, it can easily be treated with the help of a CPAP, or a continuous positive-air pressure. The device sends air through the tube and mask into the patients mouth and nose, which keeps airways open.